Will Gadd Lecture for Porters Progress

This Thursday, if you live in London well worth catching Will Gadd at the RGS. Will is a true phenomenon, one of the world's most impressive and creative climbers and all-round outdoor athletes/explorers but he is also an outstanding communicator. If you aren't 10% more alive at the end of this show then you are probably fast on your way to clocking out already.

News from around the world

One of the reasons I keep up a blog is that I've loved being inspired by the adventures of others. Sometimes friends, sometimes famous folk I've seen on tele and sometimes people I've never heard of. That's the wonder of the 'net I guess; access to psyche around the world. So here's a few things that got me going today.

Relatively close to home, Jack Geldard ground up repeated Stevie Haston's new monster of a route at Doris. There's been lots of forum discussions about this route, which I briefly got involved with. These reached a hilarious peak when Stevie declared that both Adam Long and Ben Bransby didn't have enough ground up experience to offer a valid viewpoint! Much more interesting though is that Jack has blogged about his training, to achieve onsighting an E8's worth of Choss and muses on what is required for loose climbing.
http://jackgeldard.com/

Will Gadd is a very astute Canadian who excels at excelling. Doesn't really matter what it is mountains, icefalls, rock faces, thermals or raging rivers Will is top draw material. One of his recent posts on his blog caught my eye, where he contrasts the positive fun approach of a new generation of young adventurers with the doom and gloom negative psyche of his generation. The same generation that shaped my own early days of alpinism. http://gravsports.blogspot.com/2009/08/power-of-youth.html

Spotted this superb effort by Max Turgeon, a softly spoken Quebecois lad now based in Cham who I had the pleasure of climbing with in Scotland last season.
http://themountainworld.blogspot.com/2009/09/across-alps-hard-way.html

And finally a little more running I'm afraid. Seems Al Powell has been up to his usual tricks with some monster endurance races. It's been truly humbling to spend the odd day out in the mountains with the likes of Al, to realise just how unfit I am in comparison, and one of the main motivators for my recent running efforts.
http://alpine-guides-blog.com/2009/09/02/mb-ultratrail-tour-du-ducs-de-savoie-2009/